My Five Word TL:DR Review : An Author I will watch

The Hacienda was an entertaining read, it kept me reading and there was never a point at which I wanted to put the book down, but, I wouldn’t say it totally wowed me.  Which is a shame because I love all the gothic and had such high expectations for this one – to be fair, my high expectations might be part of the issue here.  You compare a book to Rebecca and Mexican Gothic and you better believe you have my attention – but those are some damned big boots to step into. So, to be fair to the author, yes, this is good, lots of good ideas and I liked the writing so I will definitely be keeping an eye on what Cañas comes up with next.

When Beatriz’s father is executed her world is thrown into chaos. She loses her security and she and her mother become dependent on family who barely hide their resentment at having to take on relatives with such a stain on their reputation.  You can only imagine then why Beatriz leaps so eagerly at the chance to be married to Don Rodolfo Solórzano, a handsome man, his star is on the rise and he has a successful country estate.  Unfortunately Beatriz’s mother is unhappy with the match and the two have words which means Beatriz travels to the estate without the company of her mother.  On arrival, she meets a frostier greeting than she anticipated.  Her husband’s sister, plus the hired help, are less than pleased at her arrival and on top of that the house, which feels very run down and neglected, also seems to reject her presence.

On the face of it this book has so many things that I absolutely adore.  Gothic.  Ghosts.  Mystery.  A young wife, coming to a country estate where her presence seems to be deeply resented by everyone.  A house that is positively alive, in fact positively seething with hate and malice.  Things that go bump in the night.  Hallucinations.  Nightmares. It’s gripping.  But. Okay, its a mixed bag for me.  On the one hand, I read this very easily, it was entertaining and I had no problem turning the pages,and yet, it didn’t wow me in the way I expected.  I liked it, yes I did.  But, somehow, it felt a little predictable, there were things that just came across as a little outrageous, and, I just didn’t feel any fear.  And, yet, this wasn’t a bad read – I think my expectations were simply just too high.

I think another issue I had was I failed to connect with Beatriz.  On the face of it, I could totally understand her desire to remove herself from the life she had – but, if you read into the politics of this one you will understand why her mother struggled to accept her choices – and to be honest I also struggled a little.

Anyway, I’m going to keep this review short because I don’t want to give away too much.  I enjoyed this read.  This is an author that I will definitely be keeping an eye on and I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading this.  It’s a good read and it kept me reading into the early hours.  It just didn’t quite give me that tingle or buzz that I wanted.  My high expectations just got in the way with this one.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3 of 5 stars